1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to the field of telecommunications. More particularly, the present invention relates to enabling subscribers to create customized call control rules for subscriber specified call identification and disposition.
2. Background Information
Currently, subscribers to various call related services, such as call forwarding, call screening, call blocking and voice mail, have a limited ability to alter the implementation of these services. There are presently interfaces provided by the service providers that narrowly enable a subscriber to make changes to the existing call services, using confusing web pages or other interfaces, and affecting limited parameters. For example, typical call service interfaces list options that enable a subscriber to activate or deactivate entire features, but do not allow the subscriber to change the features themselves, either in determining how to identify or dispose of certain calls in accordance with the subscriber's criteria. Therefore, if the subscriber wants to have customized call control outside the preset call control configurations made available by the service provider, the underlying system would not support the customized call control, the subscriber would have to understand and implement relatively complex computer programming, or both.
Accordingly, a need exists for a flexible and user-friendly interface to a telecommunication network, enabling an average subscriber to build and edit complex call control rules and to customize his or her call control services for implementation by the network.